Discussions

Should everyone be encouraged to go to university?

Posted by MylissaAriana • 1/30/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: debt, education, Government, money, University

Linking to discussions on the current economic climate, personal debt etc, I ask this:

Should all people be encouraged to go to university?

I've been very lucky in that I went to a very good university in the Uk. I was also very lucky in that my family were able to help me financially and I had a well-paying holiday job.

However, many of my friends have emerged from university with debts of up to £30,000 (tuition fees, accomodation, living expenses etc). Some of these have been lucky to go straight into a well-paid job. Most of them haven't and are now stuggling to pay off these crippling debts while desperately trying to find a decent job.
Others still have found that with so many people with a degree applying for a small number of jobs, the only way to stand out in the job market is to do an MA, adding to their debt.

Would it be better for the government to stop promising to send every child to university and instead improve A-level qualifications and invest in more apprenticeships and practical courses?
Or should the government continue to subsidise university places for all that want them?

User Comments

1/30/09

siralmo

no, you can have well educated people, but its nothing with out a good trade to back it up

[reply]
1/30/09

busylizzy

I think everyone should at least go to a 2-year school or trade school to get extra knowledge and training in a specific field of work. The government could subsidize part of the cost, depending on family income. Most people can earn enough money over the summer, working about 30 hours, to pay for most of the following year's tuition and books. I do recommend staying home with the parents during college to avoid room and board expenses.

[reply]
1. 1/30/09
  
  MylissaAriana
  
  accommodation costs are definately to be avoided if possible. The problem comes when a particular university offers a better course or has a better reputation. My university, which has a very good reputationa dn looks very good on my CV, was the other end of the country to where my parents live. My 'local' university, while considered good for some subjects, wouldn't have given me the advantages that mine did.
  
  So sometimes staying at home isnt a possibility. Plus, I think living away from home is very good life experience - it encourages you to be self-sufficient in a relatively 'safe' atmosphere...
2. 1/30/09
  
  busylizzy
  
  MylissaAriana - where I have lived, there were several 2-year and several 4-year colleges, all within an hour's drive. Guess I was lucky!
3. 1/30/09
  
  MylissaAriana
  
  very lucky! there was only one an hour away from where I lived. My university was a 6 hour train journey away... an added expense, so i avoided going home as much as I could. because of the expense, of course. nothing to do with my parents
1/30/09

MadameX

You'll find some good, recent discussion on this topic here: www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/is-the-bachelors-degree-overrated

[reply]
1. 1/30/09
  
  MylissaAriana
  
  thanks MadameX, I saw that, but I was really interested in the financial implications of university which that discussion only really touched on!
1/30/09

duniyah

I think the UK Govt policy on University education is fundamentally misguided. It is seen as a very desirable thing for everyone to just go to university - matters not what you study or where you go. This is not a great policy as fundamentally education is what in economics is said to serve the purpose of signalling - and everyone has a degree, all it really means is higher degrees are sought out to send the same signal to employers or only certain Uni's are seen as being worthwhile.
You are obviously aware of the UK system and you were lucky enough to have gone to a good uni, but there are so many Uni's that are just deemed worthless. Whenever I have looked at CV's of fresh grads for positions in companies I have worked in, we have looked only at a very small range of British Uni's as a lot of the others are not known well enough or don't have the right reputation.
I think as many have suggested the right policy would be to allow people to do more vocational courses. We have had a woeful shortage of qualified people for many professions.

[reply]
1. 1/30/09
  
  MylissaAriana
  
  I completely agree. unless you get a good degree from a good uni, there's no point in saddling yourself with a mountain of debt. Far better to do a vocational course/apprenticeship. Especially as currently in the UK a lot of vocational jobs (plumbers, electricians) are paid far more than recent graduates.
  
  Especially if you chose to do a subject out of interest and not for career progression - Archaeology or History of Art vs Medicine or Law, for example. And I say that as an Archaeology graduate...
1/30/09

azmiahmad

i don't think so..my friend quit from university two year ago and then start his own bussines. now he is rich.

[reply]
1. 1/30/09
  
  MylissaAriana
  
  good for him!
1/30/09

CoyoteRose

I don't think everyone should be encouraged to go to college. The simple fact is not everyone is cut out for college life. Alot of them just go because their parents expect it of them and they waste time and money getting mediocre grades and not being an adult. Those students leave college not really know anymore than they did when they got it. They have no job experience because their parents paid their way, so they can't get jobs. They would have been better off getting jobs straight out of high school.

Furthermore, those kind of students wastes the time and talent of students who are really at college to learn and continue on to higher level degrees. During undergrad i had students so painfully slow that the professors had to bring the entire class down to their level. They asked inane questions that they could have found the answers in their textbook if they had learned how to open one. Those same students are the ones that gripe they when they don't get good grades, even though they never do any quality work. It becomes a pointless cycle.

[reply]
1/30/09

myriadlife

I think people should really only go to university if they have a specific career/vocation in mind. Otherwise I don't really see the point especially if it can create so much debt. There are other ways of doing it, eg.Open University courses if you have a particular interest in a subject, then you can work at the same time.

A lot of store has been put by university education and for some (not all by any means) it is a status symbol of how well their children have done unfortunately it is not always so economically viable and I think these attitudes might well start to change now.

[reply]